This week I was responsible for processing
eelgrass samples that we had taken from our trip in Willapa. These were taken during
the shell bag sampling. Basically, we cut all of the above ground grass from
within the crab corral, and brought them back with us in order to have a dry weight taken (a dry weight is a
measure of mass after a sample has been dried, and had all excess liquid is removed
from it). We were hoping to find a correlation between the densities of
eelgrass within the structured habitats, and compare that to the amount of
crabs that settle within those areas. It is possible that crabs don’t simply
live an area with eelgrass present, but the amount of eelgrass could factor
into this choice as well. Therefore, by finding what the biomass was of each
sample that we took and comparing it to the number of crabs we found within
that same area, this could give us some idea as to how much covering the crabs
prefer to have.
This processing of the eelgrass is
a very simple task, however it’s very time consuming. Blade by blade, I had to
sort out the Z. japonica, from the Z. marina, from the microalgae. Once all
the samples were sorted, each had to be put through a salad spinner to remove any
excess liquid. Those individual samples, separated by species and location were
placed into pre-measured paper lunch sacs, and measured for a wet weight (the amount of mass of a
sample before drying, with water present). The samples were then left in a
drying oven for three days, before being measured for dry weight. There was
approximately 60 separate samples of eelgrass and algae. The results of this
data will be reviewed at a later time.
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